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Proton therapy
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A POLICE hunt was launched last week after the parents of a child with brain cancer removed him from a UK hospital. Ashya King’s family, who were found in Spain, wanted him to receive a treatment
GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images
Proton therapy
60 Seconds
Dead space geckos Five geckos launched into orbit by the Russian space agency have perished. Four females and one male were sent into space aboard the Photon-M satellite to study how zero gravity affected their sexual habits. Now the satellite has returned to Earth. The lizards appear to have frozen in flight.
“Because of its precision, proton beam therapy is used on difficult-toreach cancers”
Icy winter
Allstar Picture Library/Alamy
called proton beam therapy that he could not get on the UK’s National Health Service. Unlike conventional radiotherapy, which kills cancer cells with X-rays, proton beam Heading for trouble therapy uses energetic protons. SEEING stars? It may be from one The depth to which the beam header too many. Following a penetrates can be precisely set in class-action lawsuit filed in a way that an X-ray beam cannot, California last week, pressure is reducing the risk of damaging growing for soccer’s international healthy cells nearby. In countries governing body FIFA to limit the where the therapy is available, potential for brain damage from such as the US, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, that precision the game. The lawsuit has been brought means it is used to treat difficultto-reach tumours, including those by a group of players and parents in the US. It claims that FIFA, in the eye, brain and spinal cord. With only one treatment centre alongside a number of US soccer in the UK, proton beam therapy is organisations, has been negligent used sparingly to treat rare eye “Even head-to-ball contact, tumours. If appropriate, people a normal part of the game, can be sent abroad, at a cost to might lead to reduced the NHS of about £100,000. cognitive function” The UK government has committed to funding two further in its handling of head injuries – centres, which will open in 2018 and treat about 1500 people a year. particularly several high-profile injuries at the FIFA World Cup. Rather than seeking financial compensation, the plaintiffs are asking for the rules of football to be changed to better prevent and manage concussion in the sport. At the crux of the problem is limited understanding of the risks and long-term effects of head contact in football. “We don’t know in a quantitative way what the effects are,” says John Hardy at University College London. Antonio Belli, a neurosurgeon at the University of Birmingham, UK, says that three bouts of –American hustled– concussion might be enough to
–That’s got to hurt–
cause permanent brain damage. Some studies suggest that even repeated head-to-ball contact, a normal part of the game, might eventually reduce cognitive function, possibly by damaging the brain’s frontal lobes. This month both FIFA and the English Football Association (FA) outlined plans to plug that knowledge gap with new research.
Heroin healthcare THE US is changing the tone of its so-called war on drugs. With deaths from heroin overdoses on the rise, policies are shifting from incarceration to harm reduction. Data released on 28 August by the New York City Health Department show that while the total heroin deaths in the city rose by 41 per cent from 2010 to 2013, they levelled off in Staten Island after a peak in 2011. That’s probably due to a harm-reduction policy begun there in 2012. This included equipping police, first responders, and emergency rooms with the anti-overdose drug naloxone to reduce deaths. The city now plans to roll out the policy. Vermont has gone further. Under a bill signed into law in June, heroin addicts will be able to avoid prosecution by enrolling in treatment, and will have better access to heroin substitutes to wean them off the drug.
The extreme winters that froze North America for the last two years may have been partly caused by the melting of Arctic ice. Climate models suggest that shrinking sea ice forces heat into the upper atmosphere, which weakens the jet stream and allows chilly Arctic air to spread south (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5646).
No to clean and green Australia looks set to scrap its Renewable Energy Target, one of the last remaining pillars of its climate change policy. It would have seen the country obtain 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, as well as cutting wholesale energy prices.
Memory reset When in doubt, give it a wipe. NASA is planning to reformat the memory of its Opportunity Mars rover, as numerous computer resets are interfering with the rover’s operations. Opportunity is 10 years old and parts of its memory are corrupted. The reformat will flag these as areas to be avoided.
Extreme snacking Lights. Camera. Crisps. Watching high-octane drama on TV tempts viewers to snack more voraciously than more sedate viewing, possibly because they are too distracted to restrict their intake. Students watching 20 minutes of a Michael Bay action film ate 100 grams more food – 100 extra calories – than those watching an interview (JAMA Internal Medicine, doi.org/vgh).
6 September 2014 | NewScientist | 5
A POLICE hunt was launched last week after the parents of a child with brain cancer removed him from a UK hospital. Ashya King’s family, who were found in Spain, wanted him to receive a treatment
GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images
Proton therapy
60 Seconds
Dead space geckos Five geckos launched into orbit by the Russian space agency have perished. Four females and one male were sent into space aboard the Photon-M satellite to study how zero gravity affected their sexual habits. Now the satellite has returned to Earth. The lizards appear to have frozen in flight.
“Because of its precision, proton beam therapy is used on difficult-toreach cancers”
Icy winter
Allstar Picture Library/Alamy
called proton beam therapy that he could not get on the UK’s National Health Service. Unlike conventional radiotherapy, which kills cancer cells with X-rays, proton beam Heading for trouble therapy uses energetic protons. SEEING stars? It may be from one The depth to which the beam header too many. Following a penetrates can be precisely set in class-action lawsuit filed in a way that an X-ray beam cannot, California last week, pressure is reducing the risk of damaging growing for soccer’s international healthy cells nearby. In countries governing body FIFA to limit the where the therapy is available, potential for brain damage from such as the US, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, that precision the game. The lawsuit has been brought means it is used to treat difficultto-reach tumours, including those by a group of players and parents in the US. It claims that FIFA, in the eye, brain and spinal cord. With only one treatment centre alongside a number of US soccer in the UK, proton beam therapy is organisations, has been negligent used sparingly to treat rare eye “Even head-to-ball contact, tumours. If appropriate, people a normal part of the game, can be sent abroad, at a cost to might lead to reduced the NHS of about £100,000. cognitive function” The UK government has committed to funding two further in its handling of head injuries – centres, which will open in 2018 and treat about 1500 people a year. particularly several high-profile injuries at the FIFA World Cup. Rather than seeking financial compensation, the plaintiffs are asking for the rules of football to be changed to better prevent and manage concussion in the sport. At the crux of the problem is limited understanding of the risks and long-term effects of head contact in football. “We don’t know in a quantitative way what the effects are,” says John Hardy at University College London. Antonio Belli, a neurosurgeon at the University of Birmingham, UK, says that three bouts of –American hustled– concussion might be enough to
–That’s got to hurt–
cause permanent brain damage. Some studies suggest that even repeated head-to-ball contact, a normal part of the game, might eventually reduce cognitive function, possibly by damaging the brain’s frontal lobes. This month both FIFA and the English Football Association (FA) outlined plans to plug that knowledge gap with new research.
Heroin healthcare THE US is changing the tone of its so-called war on drugs. With deaths from heroin overdoses on the rise, policies are shifting from incarceration to harm reduction. Data released on 28 August by the New York City Health Department show that while the total heroin deaths in the city rose by 41 per cent from 2010 to 2013, they levelled off in Staten Island after a peak in 2011. That’s probably due to a harm-reduction policy begun there in 2012. This included equipping police, first responders, and emergency rooms with the anti-overdose drug naloxone to reduce deaths. The city now plans to roll out the policy. Vermont has gone further. Under a bill signed into law in June, heroin addicts will be able to avoid prosecution by enrolling in treatment, and will have better access to heroin substitutes to wean them off the drug.
The extreme winters that froze North America for the last two years may have been partly caused by the melting of Arctic ice. Climate models suggest that shrinking sea ice forces heat into the upper atmosphere, which weakens the jet stream and allows chilly Arctic air to spread south (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5646).
No to clean and green Australia looks set to scrap its Renewable Energy Target, one of the last remaining pillars of its climate change policy. It would have seen the country obtain 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, as well as cutting wholesale energy prices.
Memory reset When in doubt, give it a wipe. NASA is planning to reformat the memory of its Opportunity Mars rover, as numerous computer resets are interfering with the rover’s operations. Opportunity is 10 years old and parts of its memory are corrupted. The reformat will flag these as areas to be avoided.
Extreme snacking Lights. Camera. Crisps. Watching high-octane drama on TV tempts viewers to snack more voraciously than more sedate viewing, possibly because they are too distracted to restrict their intake. Students watching 20 minutes of a Michael Bay action film ate 100 grams more food – 100 extra calories – than those watching an interview (JAMA Internal Medicine, doi.org/vgh).
6 September 2014 | NewScientist | 5